DocuSign of the Times: This Week’s Big Cyberattack

June 13, 2017

Disastrous Deja Vu

*sigh* I had really hoped to lead off with better news this week.

Popular digital verification service DocuSign was just the latest victim of the cyberattacks that appear to be ramping up with the recent proliferation of hacker tools. This latest attack centers around phishing emails, or messages that appear to be from a legitimate sender but contain malware.

We’re crossing our fingers that none of our clients were affected, but naturally we’re standing by to put out any fires. In preventative measures, this informative article talks about ways to spot phishing emails before you end up on the hook. Probably a good idea not to open any DocuSign emails you weren’t expecting in the meantime.

Flights of Fancy

My secret desire to jaunt around the world on a private jet isn’t much of a secret any more to anyone who has been reading this for a while, and thanks to Jetsmarter I can stop buying those half a billion dollar jackpot Powerball tickets now.

That’s right, apparently the service is offering a free three month membership trial to what they term as “elite fliers.”Just email Jetsmarter with proof of status (read: gobs of money) and see if you qualify according to their exacting standards of high class aerial passenger.

If your monies are a bit less significant…say, you just have a paltry $2 million or so to spend…a more economic option is the Cirrus Vision jet. The single engine, owner-piloted aircraft is essentially the Beetle of private jetliners, exuding a certain approachable quality that sets you apart as a particularly bohemian plutocrat.

Real World Problems

Of course, I’m stuck flying commercial until one of my fantastic patent pending ideas that I’m not going to tell you about takes off, but I have to say having my laptop along for the ride has always made suffering the indignity of airport security just a bit more tolerable.

I’m going to enjoy that while it lasts, because national security policies are quickly heading in the direction of “no one can bring anything anywhere,” and laptops are the latest target of these measures.

PCMag put out a helpful little piece detailing strategies for working on a flight without a laptop, because there’s nothing we can really do about it besides complain online or choose other modes of transport.

I’m starting to prefer the teleporter we have at the office, but it’s patent pen—um, I’ve already said too much.

Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)

I don’t know if you’ve seen the many pictures of me that float around the Archway media presence, but in case you haven’t noticed, I have pretty fair skin.

Taking off my shirt on a sunny day has interfered with the performance of satellites orbiting the earth.

I sunburn easily, is the point I’m getting at here.

Still, regardless of your skin color sunburn is a peril just about all of us have to live with in exchange for beautiful summer weather, and if you’d rather not be peeling flakes of pain off your body after a day of fun in the sun, this Lifehacker article is worth a look.

The Last Word

All right everyone, it’s going to be a pretty busy week here at the offices as we work to sort out the potential aftermath of this latest high profile cyberattack, so this seems like a good place to wrap things up.

Thanks as always for making time early in your week for another high quality installment of “Brad’s Blog,” don’t forget to update those virus definitions…no, as in, “right now.”